Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
**Music**
Biology has taught us a huge amount about flight and we're trying to understand that,
so that we can inspire micro air vehicles for future Air Force applications.
The animals fly and we take their video at very high speeds so we can really see the detail.
At the same time, we shine a laser behind them
so that we can see the motion of the air that the animals make as they fly.
We are already seeing designs for micro air vehicles that have joints within the wings,
that use complaint soft materials in the wings.
Those weren’t things people were thinking about very much
before we started talking about the way bats have particular distinctive wing design.
If you haven’t seen an animal flying in slo-mo you haven’t lived.
And to see the detail and the elegance;
that they can turn, that they can maneuver, that they can avoid obstacles,
that they can recover when you perturb them, it’s just unbelievable.
And if we can learn something from that when we make engineered vehicles then we’ve done a good job.